English 1B Online

Luis Limcolioc

English 1B online

English 1B (Reading, Writing and Research) is a transfer-level course that teaches
students to read and analyze college-level texts and to write college-level papers
with the focus on learning how write a research paper. This online version of English
1B requires no face-to-face meetings. All coursework will be done online using De
Anza's course management software, CANVAS. Students will need access to the internet
and an email account. Though not required, a high-speed internet connection is suggested.

Course Description:

In this course we learn the techniques and practice of personal, analytical and argumentative
writing based on our critical reading of texts. This course is designed to teach you
to write an organized, well-developed expository essay with a minimum number of mechanical
errors--in short, to write college-level prose. To this end, we will address the writing
process (pre-writing, writing and revising) as well as questions of sentence structure
and error identification.

This class will require at least 8,000 words of graded writing: 4 essays and drafts,
discussion assignments, and a research paper. All coursework will be submitted through
the course management software or by email. Each assignment is described in detail
on our class web site.

Essays and Drafts: The graded essays counting for the bulk of your course grade will
be formal writing assignments graded numerically according to a grading standard.
The essays will be analytical responses to the required texts. Most of the essays
will involve peer editing, the first drafts reviewed and critiqued through discussion
groups. TO HAVE A CHANCE OF PASSING THIS COURSE YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS
AND RESEARCH PAPER. Late essays will be penalized in points. Instances of plagiarism
will not be tolerated. You will fail the course if you plagiarize ideas or parts of
a paper. Throughout the term we will work on integrating and citing outside sources
in your essays. All essays and the research paper will be submitted on our course
site AND on Turnitin.com.

Research Paper: Over the course of the quarter, you will learn various research skills
and compose a research paper of 10-15 pages. You will incorporate at least one of
your essays as a chapter in your research paper which will comprise of at least two
chapters. In short your research paper is a kind of expansion of one of your essays,
and so you will be "working on" your research paper as you write your essays over
the course of the quarter.

Discussion Assignments: You will be expected to log in to your class web site on a
regular basis to access course materials, complete and submit assignments, and participate
in discussion forums. For every essay assignment there will be discussion forums set
up to facilitate informal writing assignments consisting of posting responses to discussion
questions and prompts and responding to a classmate's post. There will be due dates
for the initial posts and responses to a post, and the discussion forums will remain
open until the corresponding essay is due.

Check the schedule of reading and writing assignments in the weekly lessons.

Read the weekly lessons and access course materials (if necessary).

Participate in class discussion by posting responses to discussion assignments in
the Topic Discussion Forums.

Ask questions about course materials and assignments in the appropriate Q&A Discussion
Forum. Please note the particular areas for posting general questions about the course
and specific questions about the readings and assignments. Asking questions is an
important part of this class for it initiates the feedback process that is crucial
to online instruction.

If you do not understand something, DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT YOUR INSTRUCTOR thru
CANVAS or by email. For those questions whose responses you think will benefit others in the class,
please post in the appropriate Q&A Discussion Forum.